The field of art to which this invention pertains is the hydrogenation of a hydrocarbonaceous charge stock. More particularly, the invention relates to hydrogenating hydrocarbons containing hazardous or obnoxious hydrocarbonaceous compounds. More specifically, the invention relates to a process for hydrogenating a hydrocarbonaceous charge stock containing nitrogen, sulfur or halogen-based impurities which process comprises the steps of (a) contacting the hydrocarbonaceous charge stock in the presence of hydrogen with a hydrogenation catalyst in a hydrogenation reaction zone to simultaneously increase the hydrogen content of the hydrocarbonaceous charge stock and to generate at least one water-soluble inorganic nitrogen sulfur or halogen-based compound produced from the reaction of said nitrogen, sulfur or halogen-based impurities in the hydrocarbonaceous charge stock and the hydrogen; (b) containing the reaction zone effluent containing hydrogenated hydrocarbonaceous compounds and at least one said water-soluble inorganic compound with a fresh aqueous scrubbing solution; (c) introducing the resulting admixture of the reaction zone effluent and the aqueous scrubbing solution into a separation zone to provide a hydrogenated hydrocarbonaceous stream and a spent aqueous scrubbing solution stream containing at least a portion of the water-soluble inorganic compound and trace quantities of hydrogenated hydrocarbonaceous compounds; (d) contacting the spent aqueous scrubbing; solution stream with an adsorbent to remove the trace quantities of the hydrocarbonaceous compounds from the aqueous scrubbing solution stream thereby providing an aqueous stream essentially free from hydrocarbonaceous compounds; (e) removing the hydrocarbonaceous compounds from spent adsorbent thereby regenerating the adsorbent; and (f) passing the hydrocarbonaceous compounds which are removed from the spent adsorbent in step (e) into the hydrogenation reaction zone of step (a) thereby recovering the hydrocarbonaceous compounds.